Don’t let computers eat your vote

I’ve sent the following e-mail to my governmental representatives. I suggest you do the same in your own districts.

To: Michael Dickerson, Mecklenberg County Election Director
John W. Rhodes, State Representative
Robert Pettenger, State Senator
Mel Watt, U.S. Congressman
John Edwards, U.S. Senator
Elizabeth Dole, U.S. Senator

I just wanted to write you to to let you know about my concern regarding the recent national move toward computerized voting. As someone who might be considered one of your more technically savvy constituents, I’m aware not only of the promise of technology to make voting more accurate and fair, but also the ways in which technology can be used to conceal abuses.

Computerized voting has already been shown to be responsible for erroneous election results. This is not a theoretical issue; it is a real problem that has the potential to become even more significant.

As you consider the critically important issue of how to ensure that voting rights are extended to all citizens of our county, state and nation, I ask you to think carefully about the need for a verifiable way to count votes. Blindly using computers to replace outdated voting machines and removing verifiable paper trails from elections can make them MORE, not LESS susceptible to error and fraud. If you have not yet educated yourself about the problems inherent in the leading computerized voting solutions being implemented today, please visit the Web site Verified Voting.org, which provides a vast array of information on the accuracy of computerized voting machines and efforts to curb voting error and abuse.

In particular, I urge you to support Carolina Senate Bill 1415 and House Bill 1748 or the relevant federal legislation asking for a moratorium on unverifiable computerized voting machines and a study of more accurate and fair voting systems.